Cubs rally in 9th, then fall short in 13th; Cards handle Braves

White Sox pull off K.C. sweep

The Cubs’ Starlin Castro (left) avoids the tag by the Nationals’ Tyler Moore during the sixth inning Thursday at Wrigley Field. Castro was safe at first, but the Cubs lost 5-4 in 13 innings.

By The Associated Press

Conor Gillaspie homered leading off the 12th inning Thursday night, lifting the Chicago White Sox to a 4-3 victory over the Royals and their first three-game sweep in Kansas City since 2005.

Gillaspie drove the second pitch he got from Luke Hochevar (3-2) just over the outstretched glove of right fielder Justin Maxwell for his 11th homer.

The tiebreaking shot came after Jacob Petricka made his major league debut in the 11th inning for the White Sox, inheriting runners on first and second with nobody out. Petricka calmly got Salvador Perez to ground into a double play to end the inning.

Addison Reed preserved Chicago’s sixth straight win, and the first of Petricka’s career, when the he left the tying run on second base for his 34th save.

Emilio Bonifacio, Alcides Escobar and Jamey Carroll each drove in a run for the Royals in the fifth inning. Alexei Ramirez, Dayan Viciedo and Josh Phegley had RBIs for the White Sox.

Nationals 5, Cubs 4, 13 inn.: Denard Span scored the go-ahead run on pinch-hitter Chad Tracy’s grounder in the 13th inning, and Washington won in Chicago after Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg blew a three-run lead in the ninth.

Span doubled leading off the 13th against Michael Bowden (1-3). He moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Steve Lombardozzi, and came around on Tracy’s roller to the first-base side of the mound.

That made a winner of Craig Stammen (7-5), who worked two innings.

After a 2-hour rain delay at the start, Strasburg was one out away from a complete game with a 4-1 lead before Chicago rallied to tie it in the ninth. Junior Lake had an RBI single, and Donnie Murphy hit a two-run homer to make it 4-4.

Cardinals 6, Braves 2: Joe Kelly pitched six effective innings, and Matt Holliday broke out of a slump with two doubles as St. Louis won at home.

David Freese drove in two runs as the Cardinals won for the fifth time in six games. Holliday went 2-for-3 and drove in a run, matching the number of hits he had during a 2-for-24 slide over his previous six games.

Kelly (5-3) allowed two runs and seven hits while improving to 5-0 with a 1.79 ERA in his last seven starts. St. Louis improved to 7-1 in Kelly’s eight starts since he rejoined the rotation on July 6.

Justin Upton hit his 24th homer, but the NL East-leading Braves lost for the second time in three games at the start of a six-game trip.

The Braves played without Jason Heyward, who is out with a broken right jaw after he was beaned during Wednesday’s 4-1 win at the New York Mets. The outfielder had surgery on Thursday in Atlanta and could miss the rest of the regular season.